Clothing for winter sailing

[jonjo]

Last year I did a delivery trip in March with a pro skipper and for the night watch he climbed into a large pair insulated dungarees before putting on his top layers of clothing. Not recognising the clothing brand name of his gear I asked where it originated from and he said is was diving gear.

Following some online research I think he was using a diving under suit. Does anyone know if these work well for winter sailing?

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[Marsupial]

Jonjo

Had a conversation with a diver type yesterday and he talked of many things clothing. He suggested - for diving - you will love this, take a motorcyclists electric waistcoat and sew it into a dry suit, connect it to a long lead plug it into a handy socket on the boat (12v) and jump in! Got me thinking, why not just buy one and wear it normally under a fleece and plug it into a handy 12 socket in the cockpit? Seems like a good plan, they use about 40watts apparently (motor sailing?) and cost about £100.00. Gloves and boot warmers are also available.

No I dont have any commercial interest.

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[Mudplugger]

Try your local fishing tackle shop, have some interesting items of cold weather gear, from Handwarmers, Quilted long johns, kapok socks, Fleece one piece suits etc. all at substantially cheaper prices than marine equivalents! and as one invariably wears them under wets, doesn't really matter about limited colour choice.... HTH Tony W.

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[Talbot]

just having a waistcoat would be unsuccessful for diving in winter. I have a full thinsulate suit that I wear under a 4mm compressed neoprene drysuit. That cambination was perfect for diving in the middle of winter (even when it was snowing on one occassion.

The bigest problem was gloves. I use a light pair, cause I use an underwater camera, and need to be able to operate the switches, but the hands get cold!

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[jonjo]

> they use about 40watts apparently (motor sailing?)

About the same as a couple of masthead tri-lights then.

I have always wanted to glow like a kid in a Ready-Brek advert.

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[flyingjunior]

Dont know much about the suitibility of undersuits for sailing but something you may fancy and is mentioned of sorts in one of the above reply's is a typhoon icebreaker, which is a bodywarmer which heats up to 42 deg C. They have been about for ages but all the previous incarnations would eletricute you if you got them wet.
The downside about the icebreaker is its price of £499.
another cheaper altenative I can recommend is the roham winter bags walking trousers I have got two pairs one of which I was lucky enought to pick up in a charity shop (these are padded) and the newer pair are fleecy lined both with a windproof nylon shell.
Hope this is of use cheers Pip

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[Scubafill]

Jonj
I am both a SCUBA diver and a biker and were under suits for both hobbies (as well as sailing).
Any good dive shop or website can supply onepiece undersuits which are used under Trilam Dry Suits which have no insulating qualties. Most good undersuits are wicked to allow moisture out but retain body heat. As stated in this thread the Rolls Royce is the Typhoon Icebreaker which will cost £499 and only warm your trunk, leaving cold extremities.
Motorcycle shops have heated jackets, gloves and boot inners, some ski shops sell similar items.
At the end of the day there are loads of products out there, it just depends on what you want to pay and how restrictive some undersuits can be in relation to deck work etc.

Phil

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